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18 May 2012

Curb Your Curiosity: Flapper Doodle

Eeeeeeek! I'm very excited to have our next designer on the blog for this week's interview. Why? Coz she created two of the best illustrated flapper girl characters EVER (Eloise and Ramona), she clearly has a great sense of humour and style and I admire her greatly as a woman who has managed to continue to make a living selling her artwork through Etsy. Take a look...

I like that there's very little mess to clean up, and it's a portable medium. I can draw with my pen and paper basically anywhere, whereas lugging around all of my paints, canvases and brushes would be quite the task!

I'll do a bunch of pencil sketches first, and when one of them finally clicks, I'll ink it. A lot of my ideas never actually make it into a final drawing.

• How do you structure your working day?

I try to keep a regular working schedule but working from home often means that life bleeds into work and vice versa. As much as I want to quit work at 5pm, I'm usually packing orders or answering emails at 11pm. And I can't even count how many times I've eaten dinner in front of the computer while I work!

• We all get creative block. How do you combat it?

I get creative blocks a lot. I panic, and think that I'll never be able to draw or come up with a new idea ever again. But once the panic subsides, I try to take a break and clear my thoughts. If I think too much about feeling blocked, it doesn't go away.

• Share your favourite tool with us.

I love Micron pens! And since I don't usually sell my original drawings (I sell prints instead) I like to use plain old copy paper. I like the way the ink works on it, and it's really smooth so my scanner doesn't pick up any texture when I'm making prints.

• Describe your dream creative space…

Honestly I have my dream creative space right now! Granted my studio is technically also my bedroom, but I have it organized and decorated in such a way that I can't think of anything I'd like better!

• What lead to the moment that made you decide to sell your products professionally?

I wanted to be an artist since I was a kid. My parents have been very supportive, and we started out by doing outdoor art fairs. I was pretty successful with them, until the economy tanked in 2008. I started listing my artwork on etsy to supplement my floundering income. The art I had been taking to the shows didn't do well on etsy, but in April 2009 I uploaded a little black and white doodle to flickr and things sort of took off from there!

• What are the obstacles you've encountered on your journey so far?

I struggle constantly with self-doubt and low self esteem, especially with regards to the art that I make. I compare myself to other, better artists, and I can be really hard on myself.

• The biggest high of your career so far is...

I won First Place at the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit last spring, and that was definitely the best moment of my art career so far. As far as Flapper Doodle goes, every single time I make a sale it's the highest point of my career. I do a little happy dance every time I see that somebody liked my artwork enough to purchase it.

• What's the biggest lesson you've learnt on your creative journey so far & what advice would you give to a newbie?

Be prepared. If you're going into the art gallery world, be prepared for rejection. I wasn't, and it hurt a lot. If you're going into the etsy world, be prepared for dry spells, some impatient customers and lost packages in the mail. But also enjoy yourself. I sometimes get so stressed out about the bad things that I overlook the fact that I'm making my living off of my artwork. It's a dream come true, and you can't lose sight of that.

• What's next for you?

I'm hoping to keep Flapper Doodle going as long as it can, and I'm also working on my new shop The Book Fair which is a nostalgia trip for anyone who loved the school book fairs when they were kids! :)

• Take us on a crawl of your favourite shops. Where do you like to shop and why? (If you can include some images of the shops or products you love that'd be great!)

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